Author: Jim O'Neill

Jim O’Neill is Threat Stack’s Lead UX Designer, overseeing the platform’s visual & interaction design. Previously a creative director at the agencies Above the Fold and Pixels for Humans, Jim applies his 10 years of design experience to the challenge of building a security tool that’s not just useful, but a pleasure to use.

The Product Team at Threat Stack is always on the lookout for ways — big and small — that we can make the Threat Stack experience smoother and easier for our users. Recently we rolled out a small UI change that makes a big difference in helping you triage your AWS Configuration Auditing results.

This series explores how good UI design plays a key role in keeping users secure by making them more inclined to trust and use their cloud security systems. In Part 1 and Part 2, we examined the onboarding process and the visual design of Threat Stack’s Cloud Security Platform™. Here, in Part 3, we’ll look at an unsung hero of UX design — front-end performance — and its impact on the UI’s responsiveness to user interactions.

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced the theme that good user experience (UX) design can actually promote better security overall, by fostering trust and encouraging people to use their security tools more often. We looked at how Threat Stack approaches this topic through the lens of onboarding, or first-time use. Now we’re going to see how this theme plays out in the overall aesthetics, and visual appeal, of the Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform™.

A fancy floor mop sits in my closet. It’s a Swiffer WetJet, and with one look you can see that its designers prioritized good user experience (UX). The weight, shape, and built-in spray nozzle make cleaning the floor easy, convenient, and — dare I say — almost fun. Before I got it, I had a regular old mop, which was messy, inconvenient, and a hassle to use. My new mop leaves its closet at least 3 times a week; the old one was lucky if it saw the light of day once a month.